RAMYA KRISHNAMURTHY writes from Bangalore: In a surprising but not entirely unexpected turn of events, former Deccan Herald and Praja Vani editor K.N. Shanth Kumar has withdrawn his writ petition before the Karnataka High Court challenging the manner in which his removal and replacement had been authenticated.

When the matter came up before Justice Abdul Nazeer this afternoon, Shanth Kumar filed a memo for withdrawal of petitions No. 2888 and 2889 of 2007, which had questioned how his removal as editor without the okay of the board of directors of The Printers (Mysore) Private Limited had been authenticated by the district magistrate without proper enquiry.

The case had first come up for hearing on March 1, but had been put off by two weeks to allow the five respondents, including K.N. Tilak Kumar, who replaced Shanth Kumar as editor of the group’s publications, to file objections. Justice Nazeer while taking on record the memo dismissed the petition as withdrawn.

The withdrawal of the petition goes some way in giving a more concrete picture to the staff of the publications as to who is in charge. More importantly, with the Bangalore newspaper market hotting up, it allows the group to focus its attention and energy on how to meet the new challenge which could make or break its fortunes.